


Coming Home

by Kedreeva



Series: The Unspoken [1]
Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Nuke - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 17:19:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5464661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kedreeva/pseuds/Kedreeva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After years away, Duke finally turns up in Haven's port and finds Nathan there to greet him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Home

            It’s been years since Duke last saw Haven, and almost three since he first admitted to himself that he missed it. He doesn’t expect there to be anything here waiting for him; after all, there had been nothing here for him when he left.

            But shortly after the length of the  _Rouge_  kisses the side of the dock, Duke sees a familiar sight- a stocky, blue Bronco truck pulling up to the boat ramp’s parking lot.

            He waits at the end of the dock, hands shoved into his pockets, eyes on the ground, guilt and hope at war in his chest. Nathan doesn’t look  _angry_ , exactly, but he doesn’t look happy, either. He stops just an inch too far away to touch and Duke’s body aches to remedy the minute chasm of space between them.

            Instead, he waits. He imagines everything that Nathan might say, everything he might do now that Duke’s standing before him again. He imagines the sting of an accusation, the sharp bite of a soft welcome. He imagines the spark of a thrown fist and the heat of a kiss like the ones they used to share.

            Nathan’s greeting is none of those. Nathan’s greeting is silence and the loneliness of too many years apart dulling the blue of his eyes.

            Guilt wins.

 _“_ Come with me,” falls out of Duke’s mouth before common sense can intervene.

            He doesn’t think either of them really knows why, but Nathan does. They board the  _Rouge_  and Duke nudges them out into open water. He has a lot to do, but all of it can wait in light of having Nathan aboard. He takes them out to where he used to dive for oysters, and they cast fishing lines that won’t catch anything worth keeping. Nathan doesn’t ask questions he doesn’t want answers to and Duke doesn’t offer answers he doesn’t have.

            He’s just starting to think they might be able to leave the entire thing – the fights, the separation, the anger of their childhoods – behind them and start over when the coast guard cruises into his cove and everything goes to hell.

            But Nathan doesn’t throw him to the wolves, and two hours later when Duke is nursing a black eye and at least one busted rib, he tells himself that has to count for something.


End file.
